Blog Posts

That Time When I Underestimated My Daughter with Down Syndrome…Again

I am not a newbie to the world of disability. I have disabilities myself. I have tons of friends with disabilities. I have worked in the disability arena. In fact, I was working at UC Berkeley - the home of the disability rights movement - when I had the amniocentesis that told me that my

Traumatic Brain Injury: An Introduction from an Insider

My Law of Attraction Project Planner: Review

This is a post about My Law of Attraction Project Planner. It is not a sponsored post; I purchased this planner myself and am currently using it. I love the concepts of the Law of Attraction (read Ask and it is Given for the big scoop). In a nutshell, the Law of Attraction is about

You Ask, I Answer: Why Come Out as Disabled if You Can “Pass”as Non-Disabled?

This post is from my ongoing question-and-answer series, "You Ask, I Answer" in which I take questions that you send me and attempt to answer them (this might be a good time to say if you have a question, go ahead and write me here! It's all anonymous) Reader asks, You don't look like you

A Review of the Phoenix Journal, a Planner for Personal Transformation

This is a post about The Phoenix Journal - the Daily Calendar & Agenda to Achieve Goals, Boost Happiness & Productivity - Gratitude Journal, Habit Tracker, Roadmap . It is not a sponsored post; I purchased this planner myself and am currently using it. The Phoenix Journal 12 Week Planner I was originally completely mystified by

BirdBox: A Movie with Blind Advantage, from a Deaf Perspective

This post is about the Netflix movie, BirdBox. Don't read this post if you hate spoilers, because it's full of them! My good friend came over the other day and we watched BirdBox together (pausing all the way through to make sure our kids weren't watching, that they were playing nicely, for our own popcorn

hauʻoli makahiki hou

It's 2019. I just had the best night with the kids celebrating New Years with our friends, lighting fireworks and eating so much delicious food that seemed like a culmination of local Hawaiian food (laulau! Portuguese bean soup! adobo! ambrosia!). We are so blessed. And happy. 2019. A new start. I keep thinking about this

Why Nyle Di Marco Needs a Wheelchair

Photo Courtesy of the Daily Mail Nyle DiMarco, man of ultra-hotness, recently used Delta for his transportation needs (lucky them). Now, Nyle went and told Delta that he is Deaf. In response, Delta met him as he disembarked from his airplane, and had a wheelchair ready for him to use! Plenty of us have been

Do You Want to Help the Disabled or Less Fortunate? Read These Tips First!

While I was in church a while ago, there was a call for money to help poor people in "3rd world countries," people who were not so fortunate as to "live the American dream." This echoed a call in my kid's school for small things to put into a shoebox and have shipped to a

7 of the Best Plastic Straw Alternatives for Replacing Plastic Straws

This is a post about the best plastic straw alternatives. There are affiliate links in this post. Read more in my disclosure. Replacing Plastic Straws: The Best Plastic Straw Alternatives 2018 was full of debate about plastic straws and what they mean for us in the disability community (read this one by Alice Wong to

The Interviewer: This Disability-Related Short Film Will Blow Your Mind!

I don't really want to talk about this before you watch it. So please watch it! The Interviewer Now that you've watched it, I'd love to hear what you thought about it! Buy A Copy of It For Yourself or Your Company

How to Force Yourself to Be More Grateful

If your heart is busting with gratitude - if you truly feel it in you - you won't actually have room for any other emotion. You can't be grateful and angry at the same time, it's impossible. It's one or the other. Grateful or angry. Grateful or jealous. Grateful or miserable. Grateful or_____ (fill-in the

The Best Captioned Fitness Programs

This post is about the best captioned fitness programs, focusing on BeachBody. There are affiliate links in this post. Nothing is linked that I don't use myself. Wellness and fitness are very important to me. Not just because I like the feeling of being strong, but because it directly heals my complex post traumatic stress

The Ultimate Gift Guide for Supporting Businesses with a Positive Connection to Disability

Surfer’s Healing: Teaching Kids with Disabilities to Ride the Waves!

Surfer's Healing is an organization that was started by a surfer who had a kid with Autism. He wanted to be able to give all kids with Autism (and other disabilities) the experience of riding the waves. So he set it up, and it's all over the place. The way it works is that they

10 Dumb Things the Hearing Say to the Deaf

You Ask, I Answer: How Do I Help the Disabled?

This post is from my ongoing question-and-answer series, "You Ask, I Answer" in which I take questions that you send me and attempt to answer them (this might be a good time to say if you have a question, go ahead and write me here! It's all anonymous) Reader asks, I want to help the

Love Counts Chromosomes

If we were to see Love as the infinite power and creative spirit behind all existence, If we were able to see, hear and touch all that Love expresses as Love interacts with our children with Down syndrome, I think the poem would go something like this Love counts chromosomes Love sees us all as

Sex and Down syndrome!

I think we should be talking more about sexuality and Down syndrome, talking more about sex and Down syndrome. First, I want to talk a little about two nuggets that I feel address this subject most wonderfully. Yo Tambien I watched the Spanish movie, "Me Too" (- Yo Tambien). recently (available on Netflix). It's about a